


If I Die

by OnceAndFloral



Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, He gets better, Moon War, Musings about death and war, clarification no one dies except jonny very briefly and honestly u hardly notice it, the author tries to be ironic on purpose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:35:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24050683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnceAndFloral/pseuds/OnceAndFloral
Summary: A moment from the moon war.
Relationships: Jonny d'Ville & Gunpowder Tim
Comments: 3
Kudos: 93





	If I Die

Tim had the funniest thought.

His head spun and his vision swam as he stumbled over to one of the walls of the tunnels. Something hot ran down his face, unclear if it was blood or tears. Probably both. One hand braced against the wall and the other gripped his rifle close to his chest like a protective talisman. It wasn’t much use like that, but he couldn’t properly use it in this state. Nevertheless, it made him feel better.

He had another strange thought, right after he had forgotten the first one. He should be _dead_ right now. Tim wasn’t behind any sort of cover, someone should have shot him by now. He let out a one note laugh and tried to find a foxhole or maybe one of the makeshift barricades. Whatever was in his eyes made it hard to see.

Tim leaned against the wall and slid to the floor. Pretty soon _someone_ was going to notice him and then it would just be a quick line up to the side of his head and then… Well, it was self explanatory. He cradled his gun as if it were a child.

A shadow fell over him. Or, considering the already dim light, the darkness grew. Tim looked up blearily to see Jonny d’Ville standing above him, a wary look etched into his features. Rather uncharacteristic of him.

“What’re you doing?” Jonny asked.

“I don’t know.” Tim winced as the stabbing pain in his temple rose along with his words. “I can’t move.”

“Feels like you should at least try.”

It did, didn’t it? “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve never seen you do this before. Not much of a risk for me, anyways.”

As if fate were punishing him for such cocky words, Tim noticed Jonny twitch as a bullet hit his side. He could see the red blood spreading on his shirt like a flower. If Tim were any stronger, or perhaps any more hopeful, he might’ve tried to push Jonny in the chance that he would stumble back into one of the foxholes.

“There’s no point in both of us dying,” Tim said.

“So that’s it, then? You’re going to die?”

Tim had that funny thought again. The first one, the one he’d forgotten. _I don’t want to die._ He opened his mouth to respond to Jonny, but all that came out was a quiet, choked sobbed.

“Yea, I am, you asshole.” Why was he just _standing_ there, looking down at Tim like he was disappointed? He wasn’t trying to save Tim, or even himself, so what the hell was his goal?

“Huh.”

Tim groped through the darkness, clawing to grab onto something. There was just enough distance for him to reach one of Jonny’s hands that was hanging loosely at his side. “You have to promise me something.”

“You completely misunderstand the situation, I owe you nothing.”

“You _have_ to!” Tim asserted. He met Jonny’s eyes the best he could through the darkness, the tears and blood in his eyes, and the spinning, spinning, spinning in his head. “Make sure Bertie gets home.”

Jonny was uncannily unreadable. Another bullet landed in his arm. “Ah. More things about not dying.”

“I would do it myself, but I…!” Everything blurred even further. Damn his useless eyes. “I can’t, Jonny.” Another shot, and Tim saw red spreading above the previous wound in his side. _“Fuck,_ don’t you want to live?!”

“And you _do_ want to live?” Jonny asked as if for clarification. 

Tim blinked. “Yes?”

“Sounds like you’re unsure.”

“Yes!”

“Then do it yourself.”

“What?”

“Get him home yourself.”

There wasn’t anything Tim could say before Jonny had his arms looped under Tim’s shoulders and started dragging him closer to the front lines. His back was to the enemy, creating an effective shield for Tim and leaving himself wide open to get shot. Tim couldn’t tell from the angle he was at, but from Jonny’s movements he figured he _was_ hit a couple times, and yet still he carried on until they went tumbling into a foxhole together. 

They were both bleeding heavily by this point. Tim breathed heavily, trying to process it all. “What the fuck was that?”

“What do you mean?” Jonny grimaced. If Tim trusted his eyes more at the moment, he would have thought Jonny just pulled one of the bullets from his arms with his bare hands.

“You just… had a conversation with me! On the battlefield! Why?! There were a million more pressing things!”

“It was like I said. I’d never seen you like that before.”

“Like _what?”_

“Still. Stagnant. You’re always moving, you know. I thought you had given in.”

“Given in,” Tim repeated.

Jonny nodded, rolling his eyes a bit. “You kind of had, but not in the way I thought.”

“And what did you think?”

“Right now I think you should shut the hell up and get your mask ready in case of a gas attack so we can wait this whole thing out.”

Tim obeyed. There wasn’t much energy left in him to argue with Jonny if he was also concerned about keeping his body functioning. Jonny went oddly still for a while, but eventually stirred again when Tim nudged him as a precaution. For a man who acted like he didn’t care if he lived or died, he certainly had a knack of getting out of things alive. Tim could only hope he’d get the same luck.

**Author's Note:**

> heyyy what the fuck is this! i don't know, and i wrote it! hope you enjoyed it anyways tho


End file.
